An EIT image from each year of nearly an entire solar cycle
assembled by Steele Hill (NASA GSFC).
Click on the images for larger JPEG files with dates, or the various
text links above for images without dates or larger TIFF (2700 x 2030 pixels, 16 Mbyte)
images suitable for print applications.

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) celebrates its 12th launch anniversary on December 2. In late 1996,
shortly after its launch, SOHO was
able to observe the last minimum of the roughly 11-year activity cycle of the Sun. The minimum was followed by a rapid rise
in solar activity, peaking 2001 and 2002. Activity levels have slowly declined since then, but we haven't reached solar
minimum yet, despite passing 11.1 years since the last minimum  the average length of a solar cycle.